Naito Calls Out New Japan, Cup Format

Tetsuya Naito harshly criticizes the NEW JAPAN CUP, for the third straight year. He calls out New Japan for their choice of giving the winner of the tournament a shot at the IWGP, Intercontinental, or NEVER Championship. He looks for a change in the system next year.

His trips to the family restaurant have been sharply increasing this year.As usual, he called us for an urgent meeting. This time he’s upset with the competitors. Naito says, “I want to ask many of them, ‘How many times have you wrestled in New Japan, this year?’ I said the same thing during last year’s G1. New Japan doesn’t have to necessary pick 16 competitors. If you ask the fans, it’s going to come down to only Naito, SANADA, Ishii, Tanahashi or Ibushi.”

Last year, he asked to be in the tournament, even while he was the Intercontinental champion. But in the current format, champions aren’t in the tournament. Also, title challengers are not in the tournament. There are also noteworthy absences, like Kenny Omega and Cody.

Naito adds, “Since I’m in this, I look to win it. But I heard there’s some wresters out there who are only looking to beat me (referring to Ibushi). Isn’t this getting out of control? And this used to be an open-weight tournament before, now we only see heavyweights.”

After complaining about the Cup, he insisted that we cover the bill sent to him by Taichi, earlier. He was upset, “How could you guys just let Suzuki-gun pull that? I can’t believe you guys call yourself press.” He avoided paying again, on this day as well. He also claimed, “I want proof that you paid today, as a sign ofgood faith.” And he left for home satisfied, after taking the receipt.